


Firsts

by volta_arovet



Category: Avatar: Last Airbender
Genre: Fantasy, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-01
Updated: 2009-12-01
Packaged: 2017-10-04 01:37:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/volta_arovet/pseuds/volta_arovet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The mythology of the first element benders. The place you are, and the place you want to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Firsts

**Firsts**

_by volta arovet_

The first Firebender was born in the Water Tribe. She was a small, thin, sickly child with a sharp temper and a sharper tongue. She desperately loathed the cold and complained constantly about how she never felt warm, even though her family's hut was always warmer than any other's. One winter, during the days when the sun no longer shone, her family's hut burst into inextinguishable flames. The tribe gathered, at a safe distance, to watch the ice and snow burn. "Witch," they whispered. "Demon," they murmured. The flames, burning but not consuming, continued to dance on the spot where her hut had been until she packed sufficient supplies, got into a canoe, and left her tribe for good. She paddled until she reached the southern shore of the Fire Nation, where she was always warm.

The first Waterbender was born in the Earth Kingdom. He was short but solidly built, quiet but friendly, young but a hard worker. Son of a simple farmer, he would look out over his family's green, lush fields and smile...smiles that grew more and more rare as the droughts slowly sapped the life from the plants. Every night he prayed for rain, prayed until the water finally answered him. That year's harvest was the richest ever, a marked contrast to the Fire Nation's harvest, whose rainwater he had inadvertently stolen. The Fire Nation saw the Earth Kingdom's riches and invaded. The boy, miserable with guilt at the war he had accidentally started, escaped to the Water Tribe, where there was always more than enough water for all.

The first Earthbender was born to the Air Nomads. She was a brilliantly gifted musician with a golden voice and clever fingers. She would go outside to sing and play, notes drifting in the air, notes carried away by the ever-increasing wind caused by the now unnatural chills to the south and heat to the north. The winds increased until they were so strong the notes she played no longer reached her ears. Screeching a noise she could not hear, she called upon the earth to rise up and form mountains to break the wind. When the whistling between the valleys was still too much for her, she simply packed up her instruments and left for the Earth Nation, where the forests tamed the winds.

The first Airbender was born to the Fire Nation. He was a sleepy, solitary thing, more prone to meditating or stargazing than fighting or working. When he was drafted into the army, he looked up at the clouds and wished he could fly away from all of this and go to a far away land where the people were peaceful and the winds were cool. So he did.

The first Avatar was the one who walked to all four nations, saw all four elements, and decided that they were all equally beautiful.


End file.
